the pictou coal field — poole. 281 



Coal Measures. 



When treating' of this coal field it is convenient to speak of 

 it as a basin, or trough, or valley, for although these terms may 

 not be strictly accurate, they are sufficiently so to express the 

 form it assumes, since the general dip of the beds is towards the 

 central axis of the Held more especially from the east, south and 

 west sides. From the north it is not so, and yet the southerly 

 dip is referred to by several writers. There are spots along the 

 northern margin of the field where beds dipping to the south 

 may be seen, but they are of the higher measures disturbed by 

 proximity to the great North fault ; and they are not there in 

 such continuous series as on the edges of the basin in Dther parts. 



Speaking broadly, the western end of the coal field seems, in 

 the final elevation of the country, to have been most raised, for 

 beyond it are exposed the lower members of the formation. 

 These are in part repeated to the eastward at McCulloch's brook 

 J 'y the fault which crowds the axis to the northern side of the 

 trough and almost cuts it in two. On passing still further to the 

 ■eastward, along the central line of the valley, higher horizons are 

 met with, barren measuies which are succeeded by another series 

 of coal seams, and the hifjhest not far short of the eastern margin 

 •of the basin. These higher members are deflected back towards 

 the west, along the northern edge, in broken ground, as far 

 as McCuUoch brook fault. Elsewhere reference will be made to 

 the positions to which the more prominent patches in this strip 

 are assumed to belong relatively to the regular series of strata 

 that compose the Middle Coal Formation. 



From the time of Mr. Richard Smith, wdio superintended the 

 -earlier operations of the General Mining Association in the 

 twenties, speculations have been rife as to the possible present 

 and past extent of the coal field. The early miners recognized 

 the existence of the great North fault crossing the East river at 

 New Glasgow, but its influence on the workable area was variously 

 estimated, and conjectures carried the bounds of the field even so 

 far as the town of Pictou. 



Mr. R. G. Haliburton^^' in eavly numbers of our transactions 



XI) Tians. Vol. U, (1) 93. 



